M&A: Huge … WD acquires SanDisk

This is huge. Now Seagate has a relationship with Micron, Toshiba has its own disks and shares a fab with SanDisk (though I think with this acquisition, that will rapidly change).
Ok … so the HD vendors are busy snapping up the Flash makers. Is Micron next? Rumors of something have been swirling for a while.
Note also, SanDisk has their InfiniFlash unit. WD simply did not have storage appliances. This gets them into that space, and directly competing with the likes of all the smaller startup all flash array (AFA) vendors.
I think this (massively) increases pressure on the AFA folks to move up stream. The OEMs are building vertical stacks, and will be offering many folks kit to resell. This will likely tear out the underbelly of those startups, and the bigger players. I am sure no one noticed that EMC just sold itself either, due in part to declining revenues/profits, in a mature market undergoing hard challenges from new startups.
But that market, the array, has been in decline, and the decline has been accelerating. Likewise, the disk folks see the writing on the wall, spinning rust best days are in the past, and it is on the path to replace tape as the archive medium of choice.
I know some will (vehemently) disagree with this. Doesn’t matter, as this is the trajectory we are on.
Flash and flash-like-things are seemingly going to rule. So … now we have Samsung, Toshiba/SanDisk/WD, Intel/Micron, and a smattering of smaller players.
Will Samsung buy Toshiba? Stranger things have happened.
Note also, IBM blamed storage for its recents earnings miss. And generally, storage has been down.That is, apart from hyperconverged storage (our space) which is on afterburners.